Tina
by Jasmine-N-Leaves
Summary: Tina just finishes her shift as a paramedic and is heading home when a man stumbles out in front of her. He is hurt and in need of care. Before he passes out, he insists that she not take him to hospital. When she is cleaning him up, she recognises him from her childhood. How is he alive? He died after being shot in Venice Beach in 2009. Former username Jasmine-Now-Leaves
1. Alive

A/N: Hi all. This is a bit of an epilogue of sorts to my other storys The Penpal and Penpal Presents, this is set after the Presents story. Quick summury of the others, Callen and Nell get together after Callen invites Nell with him to visit friends of his in Australia. In the Presents saga, Nell finds out Callen's real name.

I hope you all enjoy this.

* * *

It had been almost two months since Callen had gone undercover. The group he was with were drug dealers and suspected human traffickers so he wasn't able to communicate with the ops centre much other than to call and ask about his mother.

NCIS had been called in and take a hand in the case when a SEAL had been killed by one of the members. He had seen a van being loaded with packages by young girls, who then also climbed into the vehicle. He had called the cops, then tried to help the girls, which was when he was killed.

Nell was starting to get worried. Callen had gone under a week after New Year's and she had yet to tell him that she was pregnant. Their time in Melbourne late last year had brought them together and the child she was now carrying was the fruit of that. She didn't know until a couple of weeks after he went under and hadn't had a chance to tell him. They hadn't heard from him since the shoot out the night before.

Callen had managed to get word to the ops through a contact of his that a large shipment was arriving and that the head of the operation was going to be there to handle delivery. SWAT, LAPD Narcotics squad, ICE agents and the NCIS team were there to arrest them once the deal went down around 8PM. However one of the dealers spotted a beat cop and a shootout started. The LAPD had been told that a member of the NCIS team was with the dealers, but once the shooting started, everything had gone to hell.

When the dust settled, fourteen members of the gang were arrested. Three dealers were dead along with a SWAT officer; seventeen other officers and agents were wounded and Sam had a graze on his leg. But there was no sign of Callen. The last the team had seen of him, he had taken up a position behind a car. When they went to look for him, he was gone and there was a blood stain on the ground.

"Nell, see if you can track G." Sam called over the ear wig. The fiancé of the lone wolf managed to track him for a few yards before his instincts took over and he vanished from the cameras.

"Sam, I think he may have been following Selin. Looks like he managed to get away from the shooting, he past Greg and when he tried to stop him, he … " Nell chocked back a gasp as the footage played in front of her.

Eric took over then, "Selin beat up and shot Callen, Sam. He managed to follow him before we lost them both a couple of blocks later."

"Can you see how bad it is?" Kensi asked. She had seen the blood pool and knew it couldn't be good.

"I think it may have been his stomach." Eric sad, sadness in his voice. "It's too dark to make anything else out."

"Find him Eric." Sam said before heading to his Challenger. "Get word to the hospitals in the area to keep an eye open for him." He was going to the nearest one to see if Callen had headed to it once he lost Selin.

Tina had just about finished her shift when the call came in that a police sting had gone wrong and cops were coming in wounded. She and her partner got the worst off to the hospital as soon as they could. It was past midnight when she managed to leave.

As usual, she took the lane that missed the worst traffic. That was when a man stumbled into her headlights. She hit the brakes and jumped out. She could see the blood on his shirt. She reached him just as he fell and as she caught him, she heard him mutter "light blue SUV, between eleven and one." She realised that he was a cop, no doubt one from the shoot out several hours before. His face was covered in blood, so she couldn't tell who he was, but for him to find her; he had to know an undercover cop she had saved in the past.

While thinking about who it could have been, she managed to get him into her car and headed to an apartment she paid cash for. She got the manager, to help her get him into the ground floor flat. Tina had saved his son, a cop, in the past and he allowed her to keep a room for just this purpose. The place was as secure as a safe-house. She had Mathers hold him for a moment until she pulled out the futon. They laid him on it and he left.

Tina got to work, cleaning out the wound and removing the bullet that had found its way into his side. From what she could tell, it had missed the major organs, but had lodged itself in one of his ribs. The guy had passed out when she got him into her car and had yet to wake up. While it made it easier to work on him, she was worried that he would wake while she was, and she had been attacked more than once by a cop suddenly coming to.

The first person she had saved had been by accident. He had been a cop and had stumbled out just like this guy had. It was the son of the manager of the building she was in. The guy had been lucid enough to make her promise not to take him to the hospital or call the cops. She had promised and he passed out after he gave her an address. She took him to it and patched him up as best she could and waited for him to wake up.

He did after several hours and told her that he was an undercover cop and needed to stay under for a couple of weeks longer to nail the people he was with. She hadn't put much stock in his words and put the whole thing out of her mind, just in case he came after her. He did a couple of months later, in uniform. He had been a cop and wanted to know if she would do it again for a friend of his that needed a bit of help with a fracture he got in a chase that had ended up in him leaping off a bridge.

That had been the start of it. The first guy she had helped got a room at his father's apartment complex at a reduced rate. She had a safe, secure place to help undercover cops that needed attention so they wouldn't go to a hospital and risk their covers. She always took the same route at the same time every other day so that they could find her. She didn't know how word got around, but two or three times a year, one would find her.

It had been a couple of hours since Tina started working on the guy. He had been badly shot in the past and she was getting the feeling she had seen the five bullet holes before. She had carefully stitched the wound closed from the inside out, cleaning and applying anti-septic cream as she went. She then got a cloth and cleaned the blood from his face. As she wiped the blood off and revealed his face, his eyes snapped open and his hand flung out and clamped down on her wrist.

She gasped as she recognised him. "It can't be, Callen?"


	2. Missing

A/N: So here we are, the second chapter. As always if I haven't mentioned it before, the NCIS: Los Angeles characters belong to Shane Brennen (except Tina, she's mine).

* * *

She gasped as she recognised him. "It can't be, Callen?"

His mind still groggy from the pain and loss of blood, he looked at her oddly, before he passed out again. Tina managed to get her wrist loose from his grip and looked at him in shock. _He died in Venice._ She thought. She looked back at him and realised that the old bullet wounds she had spotted coincided with the hits that he took that day.

Alina had called her that morning and asked her to be nearby in case he didn't believe her. She and her partner had been the first paramedics to get to him that day. Tina remembered Alina melting back into the crowd after he had been shot and when she had found out that Callen hadn't made it; had disappeared after that. Six months later, Tina had found out that she was dead. If Alina had known that he was alive, she would be to. She had only disappeared to find his killers.

Tina put aside her thoughts of the past and wondered who he worked for. She knew that he had to have a place he lived in during his operation. She started to go thru his pockets, looking for anything that could help her find his crash pad. She found his wallet, opened it and pulled out his driver's licence. It had him as Thomas Myers with an address that was a twenty minute drive away. She found keys in a back pocket, a gun and knife on his ankles.

She checked his blood pressure and finding it weak, went to a fridge. It had a padlock on it and once she had opened it, she pulled a bag of O-negative blood from it. Setting up a line, making sure that there was no air in it, she found a vein and allowed the blood to enter Callen's system.

Being a paramedic allowed her to have access to equipment that the hospital tossed out. The blood was hers, being a universal donor. The IV trolley was found online, as were a lot of the other things she had in the apartment. While well short of being a hospital, she had saved more than a dozen undercover officers in the eight years she had been doing it.

Tina checked Callen's blood pressure every fifteen minutes, and once it was up to a better level, she injected an anti-biotic into his IV line. It was now close to four in the morning and Tina had been up for over 36 hours. Checking his pressure and his pupil reaction to light and finding both to be within the acceptable range, she put a mild sedative into his system. _Now I should be able to get a couple of hours of shut eye._ She thought. She had a quick shower and changed. Pulling the ezy chair in front of her patient, she wondered who he worked for, how he survived and if Alina had known he was alive. Her eyes closed as she thought about who to contact about the man she had thought long dead.

NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles

"He can't have just disappeared!" Sam yelled after he had Nell and Eric go through every second of camera footage since Callen vanished for a third time.

Eric sighed and placed a calming hand on Nell's shoulder as he spoke to Sam "Sam, you know Callen, he wouldn't want to risk leading Selin to any of us. Selin might not know that it was Callen that gave him up, just that he got in the way. Maybe Callen offered to help get him out of the area, to stay in his good books until we can get him but Selin decided not to chance it. Any way you look at it, Callen won't break his cover unless it's over."

"Then where is he? He's not at his apartment, his home or any of the hospitals. He hasn't even showed up at the boat shed." Sam sighed and folded over the table in the ops centre, hands covering his face. Kensi and Deeks looked at the big SEAL with matching worried looks on their faces. It was midway through the following morning and had been over eighteen hours since they knew Callen had been shot, but there had been no sign of him.

"We will find him, Mr Hannah. In the meantime, would you take Miss Jones home?" Hetty said suddenly from the door.

"Hetty, I'm ok." Nell said around a yawn. "I don't want to be on my own right now."

"Then I'll take you to my place. Michelle won't mind." Sam said, holding his hand out to Nell, glad to have something to do to take his mind off his missing friend. He was still amazed that it had taken someone like Nell to get his lone wolf partner to settle down and set roots. It had been four months since they had gotten together, but the last two of those, he had spent undercover.

Hoping that his partner and best friend was ok, he squeezed Nell's hand as he led her out of ops as Deeks' phone rang. Wondering how they could want him while Callen was missing, he left the mission with Nell and headed home.

Deeks watched Sam lead Nell out of the room as he answered his phone. "Deeks." He answered as he headed out and down the hallway.

"It's Michael Mathers here, Marty. I just drove past that address like you asked and saw an open window that was closed when I drove past an hour ago." Deeks remembered that he had asked a couple of officers if they were in the area to keep an eye on Callen's crash pad. "Nothing looks missing, but I've just sent a picture to your phone of what I found."

Deeks opened the photo and saw that it was in Callen's bedroom. Someone had written, _I have him, Shaggy,_ on the wall in chalk. "Has anyone else seen it?" he asked. There was only one person the message was about and only one person who could have written it.

"No, I thought I had better let you know first." Mathers knew who had written the message, she had saved his life in the past.

"Thanks Michael. You have a partner with you?"

"Not today, off sick."

"Can you clean it off?" Deeks said as he headed out to his car. While Kensi usually drove him in, he did have an assigned car in the parking lot.

"Consider it done, Marty." Mathers said then ended the call.

Deeks got to the car, popped the hood and disabled the tracker next to the battery. Once he got in, he did the same to the ones under the dash and passenger seat. The battery from his phone joined the trackers on the seat next to him as he left the mission. Callen had shown him where they all were one week in case Deeks ever had to go somewhere and didn't want to be tracked. Callen did it all the time, he had told him once.

Heading away from the mission, Deeks thought back to the first time he had heard about The Nurse. It had been Mathers that had told him about her. Mathers had heard that he was going undercover and gave him the name of an alley and a time frame. He was only to ever use it in case he found himself seriously injured and didn't want to run the risk of blowing his cover. Deeks hadn't needed to use the info that case, but the following year, had found himself waking up as someone was patching up his leg after getting shot in a misunderstanding.

NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles

Deeks could feel something touching his leg as he slowly woke. The pain suddenly made itself known and he gasped.

"Easy, take it slowly. Give the pain killers time to work." A woman's voice entered his ears and he looked up at the woman. She was around his age with brown eyes and hair. She sat back in a chair after she had finished putting a dressing on his leg. "You're lucky, the bullet missed the artery, but you're going to have to keep off the leg for a couple of days. Who told you how to find me? Describe them." She had steepled her fingers as she looked at him.

Deeks stuttered as he answered "Uh, um, he has crew cut black hair, New Orleans accent."

"Ah, Cheddar." She said as she got up and went to a fridge. She opened it and brought back a glass of water, which Deeks drank quickly.

"Cheddar?" He asked.

"I think it's safer if I don't know your names. He had a block of the cheese in his pocket when I patched him up a couple of years ago. When did he give you directions on how to find me?" She got him a second glass of water and brought the pitcher as well.

"He gave them to me last year, but I didn't need them." Deeks said once he finished the second glass. "I don't even remember how I got to the alley last night. Oh God, my handler, I was meant to meet up with him last night!" Deeks suddenly got worried.

"Call him and say you'll meet him at the Tar Pits in an hour." The woman said. She got up and tossed him his phone and the battery. "Once we're a couple of blocks from here."

"Why are you helping me, us?" Deeks asked, finishing a third glass and taking the crutches she offered.

"Because the police need all the help they can get when catching the bad guys. And if there is someone outside the force that can help, it lessens the chance that your operation will be scrapped and you get them sooner." She said after a few minutes. They had reached the underground car-park by then and she helped him into hers. "Sorry, but I can't let anyone know where I am." She said as she handed him a blindfold.

"Thank you..." He asked.

"Sasha, and no problem Shaggy."

They had ridden in silence until they were a couple of blocks from the Tar Pits. Once Deeks had left the car, he called his handler. His handler had wanted to know who had patched him up, but Deeks had kept his mouth shut.

That had been years ago. He still heard from fellow undercover officers every now and again that she had helped them. The top brass had heard whispers, but with no names, or addresses, they couldn't do anything. Besides, The Nurse hadn't hurt any operations, so they figured that until she did, they couldn't do too much about her. Deeks had told Callen about how to find her when he heard about the mission.

NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Los Angeles,

Callen wasn't able to have any means of communication other than a monitored phone call every few days to Hetty who played his sick mother. Deeks approached him as he was about to head out.

"Callen, you ok with this?" He asked.

"I've been in tighter spots."

"With someone waiting for you to come home?" he countered, mentioning Nell.

Callen had sighed before answering. "No. I didn't think it would be this hard." He looked back up at ops where Nell was standing on the balcony. They had hugged and kissed when he left the room and he hadn't looked back until then.

Deeks sighed before saying "She'll probably kill me for telling you this, but, there is someone you can go to if you need to get us information or if you are injured badly."

"What are you talking about? Who?" Callen was worried now. Had Deeks gone to this person and told them about him and who he was about to go under with.

"Relax. She's helped undercover LAPD cops for almost ten years. We only know her as The Nurse and she tells each of us a different name. The only place you can go to her is Plyemans Alley between 11PM and 1AM on Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays. She drives a light blue SUV. Tell her Shaggy sent you. She'll get in touch with me."

"Why are you telling me this?" Callen asked.

"Because chances are, with this level of paranoia, you might get hurt when this goes down, and I can see you disappearing until you either get better or we get the guy." At the time, they didn't know who was in charge. "And I think that Nell wants you back in one piece."

"Why do you think she'll kill you?" Callen asked.

"Because she told me once that she doesn't like Feds. They have more resources to be able to find her than us cops. And we have no interest in finding her." he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Thanks Deeks." Callen held out his hand and the two shook.

Deeks pulled up to the Tar Pits, the only place he knew of that she would be. She had patched him up a couple of times since their first meeting, and every time, she had dropped him off there.

* * *

A/N: I hope this makes sense. Just my imagination playing with me. And what would Deeks have done if the bad guys men hadn't taken him to the vet at the start of human trafficking case? This was how I saw him getting help without risking is cover.


	3. Found

A/N: Sorry for the wait on this chapter, I have moved to another state and have simply been trying to get my feet under myself again.

I want to take a moment to thank those who have left a review.

Thanks to knirbenrots for reading my stories and sticking with me on this now three story long arc. When I started I did not envision it would be this long.

Thanks to the French guest that left a review. The nurse idea was something that was planned for a different story and instead it ended up here and I'm pleased it worked ok.

Thanks to Callenfan for taking the time to read my story and write a review. It was always going to be Deeks.

Thanks to diavoloduchessa for your comments. I think more people need to do something like this. Even if it's just a plate of sandwiches or cakes. It just lets them know that we appreciate everything they do for us.

To angel897, keep reading, I'm not done yet.

* * *

Tina had set her alarm for eight am and had slept until it had woken her, a total of four hours sleep. After a quick change out of her paramedic uniform and into civvies, she went to check Callen's pulse. As she touched his wrist, he had jerked awake again, this time, grabbing her throat. She reacted by hitting him in the elbow, forcing him to release her. She stepped back and away from him as he managed to get to his feet.

"Who are you? Where am I?" He asked in Spanish, somehow managing to act as his cover persona.

Tina figured that until she could confirm that he was Callen, and to help calm him down, she would use his cover and think of him as a cop. "You're safe, Mr Myers. I'm The Nurse." She replied in Spanish.

She had overheard an officer use the name after he had been taken to hospital and had quickly left the area. She had helped him on his assignment the day before. She had been wearing her paramedic uniform and didn't want anyone to know where she worked.

She massaged her neck as she asked "Did you rip out your IV?" she couldn't see if he had, he had taken up a fighting stance. "Or any of your stitches?"

"What?" Callen was still groggy and as he looked at his arm, he stumbled on the sheet she had used to cover him. Tina had managed to catch him before he fell too far. "The Nurse?" He asked. His Spanish dropping away as he realised he was safe.

"Yeah, now lie still, I want to check your stitches." Tina carefully checked the wound as Callen lay on the bed. He watched her and shied when she brought her hand to his head. "I just want to check and see if you have a temperature. I think I managed to stop any infection with some antibiotics before, but I just need to make sure." She laid her hand on his forehead and after a minute reached for a digital thermometer. Placing the device in his ear, she took another reading. "Good no sign of anything yet. Considering it's been over twelve hours, I think you're good." She stood and put the thermometer away. "Do you want some water?"

"Yes please. How do you know it's been twelve hours?" He looked at his watch and saw that it was the day after the shootout. He remembered offering Selin a ride out of the area, trying to keep an eye on the elusive man, but he had started to throw punches, calling him a traitor. Selin managed to get one of his guns and shoot him. Callen managed to follow him for a moment before the pain got too much. Not wanting to blow his cover, in case he could find the man later, he had recalled Deeks' words about The Nurse. The alley was only a couple of blocks away. If he could make it there and remain conscious long enough to see the car, there was a chance he could recover and try to find Selin later.

"I heard about the shootout. I figured if there were any undercover officers that had been hurt and managed to not get taken away by the paramedics; the alley would be where they would be." She helped him sit up and handed him a glass of water. She watched a moment before realising that he would spill most of it before he got it to his mouth. He was still weak and the adrenalin burst from the sudden fight had finished. She sat next to him and helped him to drink it.

"Thank you. Could I have another?" he asked. Callen couldn't believe he was so weak.

"Sure. In case you're wondering, you've been out for over eight hours." She said as she poured him a second glass, watching his reaction.

"What?" He gasped as he tried to stand and made to leave as he said "I have to contact my people, they'll be wondering what happened to me."

Tina pushed him back down onto the bed. "You're not going anywhere for a while. That wound was not good, and the bullet lodged itself into one of your ribs. That alone will be stopping you from going anywhere for a couple of days." Before he could protest further, she asked. "The person who told you about me, who was he?"

Callen looked at her for a moment, before saying, "Ah, he told me to tell you Shaggy?"

"Ah, the cute one." She said, as she handed him a second glass of water. He was a little stronger now, more alert and managed to drink it himself "I can get a message to him telling him you're safe, however, you are not going anywhere for at least a week." As he opened his mouth to argue, she spoke again "I take it that one or more of the bad guys got away and you want to get them?"

"Yes, the leader, how did you know?" Callen asked as he finished his second glass.

"Because that's what you all say when you wake up. You'll not be any use in your current state. This guy you're after was he injured?" she asked.

"I managed to break his nose and wrist before he got a hold of my gun." Callen was disgusted with himself at that and Tina heard it.

"So, two wounds that he cannot fix on his own." She looked at him "I have contacts in the hospitals that responded last night; I can ask around and see if he got attended to at one of them."

"Then what? I want to take him down myself." Callen said.

"If you write a letter, letting your team know that you're ok, are recovering and that you are looking for this guy, I'll get it to them. Once you've found him, I'll contact them again and let them know where." Tina said.

"Why? Why not just let me go to them now? Why stay involved longer?" Callen asked. From what little Deeks had told him about the Nurse, she didn't do anything other than patch them up and send them on their way.

"Because I think I know who you're after. I recognised some of the men we took to the hospital and on the news last night. They've been selling dirty drugs to the kids around here. The kids don't get high, so they take more and more of it, until they OD." Tina remembered some of the kids she and her partner had been taking to the hospital for the last few months. "They need to be stopped." She hoped that he bought her story. She had told a couple to him by now, but so far he hadn't questioned them.

"Ok." Callen said. He heard the sadness in her voice as well as the determination. "Can I call you something other than Nurse?"

Tina heard and saw the smirk in the question and it reminded her of when she knew him when they were kids. "Sure. You can call me Lana." She saw the small look of recognition cross his face, but he quickly shook it off. She wondered if he remembered that 'Lana' was the name she called Alina when she was little because she couldn't pronounce her name.

After Callen had written the letter, Tina headed off to his crash pad and left a note for the guy she knew as Shaggy. Then she had headed to the Tar Pits and waited for him to show up. Callen had told her that his people would have had someone watching his place, so she knew it wouldn't be long before he showed. Sure enough, just over an hour after she had left the message, he pulled up. She waited on a bench near the skate park.

"Sasha." Deeks said as he sat. It was the name that she had given him years ago when she had first patched him up.

"Shaggy. Its been a while since I saw you last. A good four years. Change jobs?" Tina asked. She hadn't seen him in a long time, and if Callen indeed worked for a federal agency, she was in trouble.

"No, just liaise for the LAPD." He said.

"For an agency."

Deeks was about to ask how she knew then realised that he had given it away with what he had said. "Yes. For the last four years or so."

"I believe I told you I don't like agents. They came close to getting me six years ago when I helped one of them." She said, disappointed.

"I told him because he has a nasty tendency to go off on his own, even when he gets hurt. He has a fiancé now, and still acts like nothing has changed, mostly. I wanted him to have a backup plan to get back to her safely." Deeks could tell she was annoyed.

"A good enough reason to tell him. Here," she handed him a small packet. "This is the bullet I dug out of him. It missed anything major; however it did end up in a rib, cracking it. He won't be walking for a few days. I intend on keeping him at my place for a week." She then passed him two letters that Deeks saw had Callen's messy hand writing on them. One had 'Mother' written on it. The other had 'Nell' written on it. "He's written explaining everything. The second one makes sense with what you've just told me." She got up and left him. "Good luck."

"Thank you." Deeks said.

"No more agents, Shaggy. If I hear of people asking after me, I'm done." With that, she wrapped her coat tighter around her and left Deeks sitting on the bench on his own.

Deeks waited for half an hour before he left. As he drove back to the mission, he pondered how to get the letter onto Hetty's desk without her knowing, then figured just hand it to her.

Hetty looked up from her paperwork as she heard the footsteps of the Detective. He had left the mission suddenly over an hour earlier after a phone call. "Mr Deeks, where have you been? You took your assigned car; however, we were unable to track it or your cell phone, care to explain?"

Deeks didn't sit, simply stood at attention and handed her the packet with the bullet and the letter. "I got a call from a fellow officer that I asked to keep an eye on Callen's crash pad. There was a message for me from a contact of mine. That contact told me that they had Callen and were looking after him."

"What?" Hetty was about to continue when Deeks interrupted her for the first time ever.

"Hetty, before you go nuts, this person has saved a lot of cops over the years, including mine. We only know them as The Nurse and he has no interest in anything we're doing. Read the letter, it's in Callen's handwriting. I have another one for Nell."

Hetty looked at the man in front of her. He had never interrupted her before. She could see that he felt strongly about this person. "Deliver Nell's letter to her, and tell her she is not to return for a couple of days. Then I want you to tell me everything you know about this Nurse." Hetty said as she slit open the envelope. She watched as he raced out to head over to Sam's place.

Hetty pulled out the letter and recognised the handwriting.

_Hey Mom,_

_I'm OK. I tried to convince Selin to let me help him get out of the area, but he called me a traitor and started throwing punches. He managed to get my gun and shoot me. From what The Nurse said, it missed everything but my rib. It's cracked so I won't be able to do anything for a couple of days. I gave him a broken nose and right wrist, so check the hospitals. Nurse said that she'd check the hospitals and other places that she knew._

_Mom, I want to find him and take him down. I'm safe here, and the Nurse did a pretty good of patching me up. She wants me to stay still for a couple of days to give the rib a chance at healing a bit. After that I plan on finding Selin._

_Could you tell Sam to go easy on Deeks? The nurse took my phone and I am so not in any condition to get up and find another. From what I can see of this place, there isn't a landline here anyway. If I had been able to call him, I would have._

The second page of the letter contained everything that Callen had been able to find out about Selin. His likes, favourite places to go, things Callen had spotted on him that stuck out. Hetty noticed that Deeks had hinted that the nurse was male, however Callen was saying that it was a woman. Pondering what he had written, she headed up to ops.

"Mr Beal, you can stop looking for Mr Callen." She said as she entered.

"You found him?" he asked as he spun to her while Kensi and Sam looked up from a map.

"Mr Deeks has just informed me that he is safe and recovering. He was shot; however, the wound did nothing more than crack a rib. In a couple of days he plans on looking for Selin. In the meantime, he managed to get this to Mr Deeks." She handed Eric the second piece of the letter. "It contains information on Selin. I want more information on what is here on my desk by tomorrow afternoon. Anything you discover will help Mr Callen find him." She turned to leave, leaving a stunned team behind her.

"Hetty, how does Deeks know Callen's safe?" Sam asked. Having dropped Nell off at his place, he had returned and had Eric check hospitals again. He wanted to know why Callen had contacted Deeks and not him.

"A contact of his is currently looking after him. You do not need to worry, Mr Hannah, I have been hearing about this person for a number of years, he is quite safe." She left, knowing that Sam would be cornering Deeks upon his return.


	4. Answers

A/N: Here we go. I'm so pleased that people are liking this story. So here is another chapter just a few days after the last. Enjoy.

* * *

Deeks knocked on the Hannah's front door and stepped back. He didn't have long to wait as the door opened and Michelle stood in the doorway.

"Martin, what are you doing here? You have news of Callen?" She asked. She stepped back and allowed him in.

"Yeah, is Nell up?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course. In the living room." Michelle lead the way into the house.

After sitting down, Deeks handed Nell the letter. "Callen's fine. I got this through a contact of mine. Selin shot him but all the bullet did was crack a rib." He hurried on at Nell's gasp. "My friend has been helping undercover officers for years and has saved my life more than once before I joined you guys. Hetty wants you to stay here for a couple of days, after that, Callen will be going after Selin again." Deeks saw the tears in Nell's eyes and the trouble she had at forming words, "He's ok Nell. My friend wants to keep an eye on him for a few days and it will give us the time we need to track him. Callen gave us a few leads in another letter to Hetty."

He rubbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug as she cried in relief. After a few moments he pulled back and thumbed the tears away from her face. "He'll be back Nell. And he'll come back for you. You've completely changed his life Nell. And Callen will do whatever it takes to return to you." He paused as he looked at her stomach, "Both of you."

Nell nodded as Deeks stood and after saying goodbye to Michelle, left for the mission. She opened the envelope. Pulling out the letter inside, she recognised the beautiful calligraphy that Callen used to write her little notes. He would leave them on her desk, stuck to her computer or have Sam fold them into flowers and left sitting in some random place she would end up in.

_My dearest Nell,_

_I am so sorry for the pain I know I've caused by disappearing. Deeks gave me an emergency place to go to if I need help without risking blowing my cover. I somehow managed to find a person he only knows as the Nurse. She got the bullet out. It only cracked a rib, but she doesn't want me moving for a couple of days_

_Me, not moving for a couple of days. I'm going to go nuts. Still, it beats being dead. I get to see you again. I'll contact you when she lets me out. I miss your voice._

_Once she ok's me to move again, I'm going after Selin. The Nurse knows a little about who works for him. She lives in the area and has seen what his drugs are doing to the kids here and is helping to look for them. Anything she finds she'll take to Deeks._

_Take care, Мой эльф, and I'll talk to you soon. I love you Nell,_

_Georgeory Callen._

Nell sighed as she read the letter. He had written Мой эльф. It was their code word that everything was ok and he was safe. "He's ok, Michelle. I mean he got shot, but he's safe." Nell said, looking at Michelle. The other woman smiled and they both let out a huge sigh of relief. "Michelle, I'm going to lie down until dinner. Think Sam will be back for dinner?"

"I think I can convince him to come home for the night. From the sounds of it, he can't do anything till morning anyway." Michelle said as she helped Nell to stand. She watched her head to the spare room before turning to the kitchen and sorting out dinner and calling her husband.

Deeks walked back into the mission and headed towards Hetty's desk. As he passed the bullpen, he was hauled to the side by a very determined Sam. Beside him was Kensi.

"What do you know of Callen?" Sam growled. Deeks could tell he was in mother hen mode as Callen called it. Since Callen had been with Nell, Sam had dialled it back a bit, realising that he wasn't taking as many risks. But with Nell at his place, he felt it was time to pull it out again.

"Sam, get your hands off me!" Deeks said, pulling the taller man's hands off his shirt. He looked at the creases for a second then glared at Sam. "He's fine. The person who contacted me has saved a lot of undercover cops for a long time. Including mine. The Nurse goes to a specific place every other night, if you've been told by one of those they have saved in the past, they'll help you get back onto your feet. The Nurse will drop you off somewhere and leave you to contact your people." He looked at Sam and Kensi. "He really is fine. If he wasn't, don't you think that Hetty would have sent you out to find him by now?" With that, he left and went to Hetty.

The next couple of days passed slowly. Eric, with help from Kensi went over the list of things that Callen had managed to find out about Selin. They put together a list of places he could frequent and sorted out surveillance for them. Deeks and Sam checked hospitals and private doctors looking for Selin. They had found reports on a man fitting the injuries Callen described, but the time they got there to check him out, he was gone. Traffic cams in the area managed to show a general direction, but as before, he managed to disappear.

Nell returned to the ops centre after a couple of days. It was late in the afternoon and she had only come to see if they had heard from Callen. As she walked into the room, the phone rang. Eric answered it and quickly transferred it to the centre phone and on speaker. "Go ahead, everyone's here." He said. Hetty had just walked into the room and stood next to Sam.

"Hey guys."

"Callen?!" "G.?!" "George?!" Everyone spoke at once as Callen's voice floated out over the speaker.

"Whoa, keep it down guys. I'm alright. The nurse finally let me out and gave me this phone. It's a burner, Eric, so don't even bother to try and trace it. Any luck on finding Selin?"

"Are you alright Mr Callen?" Hetty could hear the happiness in his voice at hearing his friends, but she needed to be sure the he was ok. If he wasn't he would use his code word.

"I'm fine _Mom_, and Deeks, I hope Sam wasn't too hard on you. Sorry big guy, but she would only let me write a couple of letters."

"That's alright G. Glad you're ok partner." Sam said, relief showed on his face as Callen used his safe word 'Mom'. If he wasn't he would have used Hetty's name.

"Where are you Callen?" Deeks asked. He knew that Nurse had a liking for tourist hot spots. It was easy for her to vanish into a crowd and harder to spot by officers trying to find her on CCTV cameras.

"Griffith Observatory. She had me blindfolded the whole way." Callen looked around, trying to spot his savour.

"She still with you?" Nell asked.

"Somewhere nearby, no doubt." Callen then quickly spoke in Russian to her and, while she couldn't understand all the words, she heard the sincerity in them. She looked to Hetty who nodded as a promise to translate later. "Hetty, Selin?" He prompted again.

While the others had been talking to him, Eric focused on finding Callen at the Griffith Observatory. After a couple of minutes, he had found him sitting on a bench looking out over the ocean to the west. He put it on the main screen so everyone could see him.

"We managed to find where he got help, but by the time we got there, he was gone. According to staff at the hospital, he was picked up by a bald guy with a tattoo of a tiger on his head." Sam said as he looked at his friend. He saw Callen clutch his side as he leaned back and a gasp came over the phone. "You right G.? That looked like it hurt."

"It did. Wait, how did…?" they saw Callen look around before spotting the camera. "Ah, I wondered why she put me here." He tipped his head back and soaked up the sunshine for a moment before continuing. "The tiger man sounds like his second in command, Tobias Carlile."

The next half an hour were spent talking about where Selin and Carlile could have gone. Eric tried to see if he could spot the person that had helped Callen. Deeks however had seen Eric's attempts and told him to drop it.

"Deeks, get everything together and drop it off for the nurse to get it to me. She's not letting me go for another few days. By the end of the week, I plan on heading out to find Selin, with or without her approval."

"I can quite simply put you out for a week." A voice suddenly said over the phone. The others looked at the screen and saw a woman wearing a scarf standing next to Callen.

"That wouldn't be very nice." He said, looking up at her and putting the phone on speaker. "Guys, this is Nurse."

"I have heard many stories about you, miss, may we have your name?" Hetty asked, not really expecting an answer.

"No." and with that she turned and disappeared into the crowd.

"Uh, where did she go?" Sam asked. Like everyone in the room, he had been watching her, but she had vanished so fast.

"Forget it Sam, she's just as good as Callen at disappearing. I'm on my way, Callen." Deeks said. He gathered everything together and left the room, leaving a stunned team behind him.

"Don't, Mr Hannah." Hetty said as Sam was about to follow Deeks out of the room.

"Forget it Sam. Deeks is actually pretty good when he wants to be." Callen said over the phone. He looked over to Nurse, who was waving to him to get off the phone. "I have to go guys. I'll contact you once I've narrowed down where he is." Callen ended the call and the team watched as he stood and headed off, out of sight of the camera. They couldn't find him on another camera and realised that he and the woman had managed to avoid the rest of the cameras.

Sam ignored Hetty's directive and bolted from the ops room and managed to catch sight of Deeks leaving the bullpen. He got into his car and managed to tail Deeks to the Tar Pits. He got out and followed the man as he walked towards a couple of chairs.

After half an hour, Sam had had enough. He walked over to the detective. When he swore, he started to think his plan to follow Deeks was not such a good one. He had hoped to see Callen for himself and tell Nell that he really was fine.

Deeks sat on the bench that he and Nurse had been on a couple of days before and waited. After half an hour, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned, expecting to see Nurse, instead he saw a very angry Sam. "Sam, what are you doing here?" He stood and looked around. "On second thought, you being here explains why she isn't." He sighed and ran a hand thru his hair. "Damn it Sam!" He cursed.

Callen and Tina had pulled up to the Tar Pits just as Deeks reached the chairs. She waited half an hour and was about to go to him when Callen laid a hand on her arm.

"Wait." Callen had seen movement behind a tree and sighed as he recognised the shadow. "My partner followed him." Callen pointed him out to her. "I need those files." He said.

"Call your partner." She said, pulling the car around the corner and into a blind spot. She handed him the burner phone and sat back as he dialled.

A/N: Well that's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.


	5. Meeting

A/N: So sorry for the wait. Here are two chapters to kinda make up for it. Enjoy.

A/N: Nope still not mine.

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Sam was about to ask Deeks what was going to happen now when his phone rang. He didn't recognise the number, but since Callen had called Ops from the same one, he answered it. "G?"

"Sam, both Hetty and I told you not to follow Deeks." Callen sounded fine, if a little ticked off that he hadn't listened.

"I wanted to see how you were. Nell's still worried about you, we all are." He didn't mention that Nell was pregnant. She had asked the team to keep it to themselves until the end of the mission. She didn't want him distracted any more then he needed to be. "How did you know that I followed him?"

Callen looked over at Tina and she nodded that he could go to his friends. "Wait there. I'll see you in five." He hung up and handed the phone back.

"If you want to go back to your friends and end this, I understand. I'll wait here for fifteen minutes if you wish to come back with me." She said as he got out. "Oh, and another thing, tell Shaggy to pick a new spot."

He headed away from her car and came up behind Sam. He had about five minutes to talk if he wanted to head back with Lana. "Sam."

"G!" Sam called out, relief on his face and in his voice as he carefully hugged his best friend. He stepped back and got a good look at him. He seemed good. Not as well rested as he was as New Year's, but that was to be expected. The last few days of forced rest had helped and he looked better than Sam was expecting. "You alright?" he said, keeping one hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah Sam, I'm good, a little sore from the bullet, but ok." Since he had been with Nell, getting Callen to tell them if he was not fine had gotten easier. "Deeks, that the file?"

"Yeah, we managed to get a couple of places he might go to under surveillance, but so far, nothing." Deeks said as he handed the file to his team leader.

"Lana asked me to tell you find a new spot?" Callen said as he took the file.

"Uh, thanks a lot Sam." Deeks groaned. He had been enjoying coming here. "Since you know about this one, I have to pick a new drop off point if I ever get hurt again and she patches me up." He harrumphed and walked a little way off so the partners could talk.

"How's Nell?" Callen asked.

Sam sighed. "She's good. Worried like hell about you before Nurse gave Deeks that letter. What did you say to her in ops?"

"That I was sorry for any worry I caused her. That I love her." Callen unconsciously rubbed at his left ring finger, his engagement ring was on a chain worn by Nell.

"She's fine, G." Sam said again.

Callen nodded and looked at his watch. "I'm going to head back with Lana."

"G. Why?" Sam asked.

"Selin doesn't know that I'm an agent. As far as he knows, I'm just the new guy." Callen replied. '"I'll call when I find the guy."

He started to walk off when Sam called out "Take care of yourself G."

"You too Sam."

Callen made it back to where Tina was waiting for him with less than a minute to spare.

"You know where to find this guy?" She asked as she put the car into gear and headed off.

Callen looked over the information for a few minutes then sat back and thought about the best way to get Selin. He responded to Tina's question as she handed him the blindfold. "I have an idea, but I'm going to need your help."

"You got it." She said as she made sure that he couldn't see under the hood. Tina drove around for another fifteen minutes after Callen had put the hood on and thought about what she could do to help.

After they had made it back inside the apartment, Callen laid out the information the team had gathered on Selin. After going over it in more detail, he looked at street maps and found a perfect black spot for car crashes near a restaurant that Selin had spoken about. He looked over at the woman who had rescued him.

He thought he remembered that she had been wearing a paramedic's uniform when he had first seen her. Being a medic would explain how she was able to patch him up. And how she heard about the shootout. She and her partner most likely had responded to it. He decided to see if his memory was correct.

"You think you can get a hold of an ambulance?" He watched her as she froze for just a moment while she was making them a cup of tea. She refused to give him coffee this late in the afternoon.

"Why? You've come up with a plan?" She asked as she continued to get the milk from the fridge.

"I thought seeing as you're a paramedic, you should be able to get a hold of one." He leant against the table, arms crossed over his chest, to watch her reaction. He saw her shoulders slump and she sighed.

"You're the first one to ask me that. How much do you remember?" she asked, turning to look at him.

"Just something wet on my face and seeing someone in green coveralls. I've seen enough medics that I know what they look like, even thru blurry vision. Then nothing until I woke up and grabbed your throat." Callen paused and looked at her, trying to see if he had left bruises. "Sorry about that, by the way. Don't think I apologised before."

Tina put a hand to her throat and rubbed it slightly. She was glad that he didn't remember her calling him Callen. "That's ok. I've had worse." When Callen looked at her in worry, she continued as she brought over the tea. "Cop woke up once when I was tending to a wound like yours; knocked me out cold. Choke holds, bruised wrists, black eyes. If it helps you to get back on your feet and catching the real bad guys, it's worth it." She shrugged and took a sip.

Callen followed her example then went to bed once he had finished it. Callen allowed himself the following day to look over the information and solidify a plan. That evening, Tina took him back to his cover apartment and prepared one last decent meal before she left.

After dinner, she allowed him to call his team and fill them in on his idea. When he was finished and had ended the call, he looked over at Tina as she cleaned up. "My partner will be riding with you." He called out as he carried over a plate and a glass.

"The one built like an ox?" She asked as she washed. She had hoped that he would allow her to help. She had mentioned to his team the damage she had seen inflicted on the people in the area that Selin had been dealing.

"Yeah, his name is Sam and he knows his way around a bus." He looked at her and saw a determination there. "All you have to do is drive. Leave the rest to us."

Tina nodded. "Ok." She had heard the plan and it sounded like a lot could go wrong. Actually it sounded insane, but Callen and his team made it sound routine. With the planning done, now all they had to do was pull it off without anyone actually getting hurt.

Two days later found Tina in an alley waiting for Callen's partner. It had taken her the better part of a day to persuade her partner to let her take the ambulance alone and even longer to convince the depot to allow it out for the night. As she got things organised, she had a sense of Déjà vu. She flashed back to years ago, waiting for Alina to call her about Callen. She was knocked out of her memories at a bang on the back door. She looked out the window and saw Callen's partner, Sam.

"You must be Lana?" He asked as he entered the van, dressed in a green paramedic uniform. He paused a moment, thinking he recognised the woman. But after several moments and he still hadn't been able to place her, he let the matter drop.

"And you're Sam, the mother-henning partner." She said as she set the final things in place.

"He said that?" Sam asked as he looked over the things the woman had gotten out for the plan ahead.

"Among others." She smiled along with him as he chuckled.

"Any problems?" He asked as he pulled out a few extra things from a backpack he had brought.

"Just that if there's any damage it's coming out of my pay. You're guys had better not miss."

"They won't. This isn't the first time we've done something like this."

"Of that I have no doubt." They settled into comfortable silence that was only interrupted by Kensi collecting a couple of things from Sam that was needed for the plan.

On the street, Callen looked over at the restaurant that Selin had entered a couple of hours before. He was scheduled to leave in ten minutes. He was a stickler for timing. Callen got word from Deeks, who was playing the part of a parking attendant that Selin had requested his car be brought around to the front. "Michaels, Zollar. Time to crash this party." Callen told two other agents. Their part of the plan was to block the drug leaders normal route away from the restaurant. A few seconds later he heard the crash of two cars hitting one another. It had been planned out so that the crash took up both lanes and with Lana's ambulance taking up the rest of the street, Selin had no choice but to go in the direction the agents had planned.

As Lana's ambulance sped past, Selin came out of the restaurant and when he was told of a car crash on the nearby corner, Callen could tell he was annoyed. The man was the kind of guy who didn't like to deviate from a set routine. He nodded and said a couple of things to his driver. The man nodded and the two climbed in, along with two bodyguards. As they started to drive off Callen said "Kensi, you're up. Be careful." Sitting in a car across the street, Callen looked over at Deeks, whom he could tell was very worried about his partner. This was something that no amount of training could cover.

Kensi sped up. She saw Selin' car come out of it just a second before she hit it. Well more like clipped it. Her reinforced bumper severely damaged the front of his car, causing the driver to lose control. Kensi faked losing control and crashed into a nearby light pole. "I'm fine, exiting the car." She said as she climbed out of the car on the side away from Selin. There she met up with Sam and the other two agents that had helped block the road. Neither had suffered any injuries and were now backing up the rest of the team.

It was decided that Callen would remain out of sight, and hopefully when he and Selin were in the same room, the man would believe that Callen was still one of his men. He watched as Deeks joined the rest of his team in surrounding the car and pulling open doors. The driver was dead, not wearing a seatbelt he had hit his head on the windscreen, despite his airbag deploying. The two bodyguards had escaped unscathed while Selin was wounded and unconscious. The crash had done the job, the guards didn't even have time to think after the crash before they were pulled from the wreck and cuffed.

Sam called out to Tina to come and have a look at Selin. She arrived in the ambulance and after pulling up and getting the gurney out she and Sam laid Selin out on it. As she cut his sleeve away to look at the wound, he stopped playing possum. He jumped up and in a heartbeat had Tina in a choke hold, the scissors in his hand.

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A/N: Please review? Only two more chapters after this one.


	6. Menace

A/N: Know what, I've changed my mind. I'm going to put up this one and the last chapter as well tonight. (nope still not mine ;p)

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"Selin, it's over, let her go." Sam growled. Kensi, Deeks, Michaels and Zollar were also pointing their weapons at the pair.

As Selin pulled Tina toward the front of the ambulance he snarled "No one follows, or she's dead."

When he spoke, Tina suddenly gasped and tried to get away with more force. Then, suddenly she was free as Callen came up behind them and pulled him away from Tina. As Selin swung around, he managed to cut Callen on his shoulder. Callen gasped at the unexpected pain and before he could gather his thoughts, the man in his mid-fifties lashed out at him again with the scissors.

Before the blade could connect, Tina shouted and shoved Callen out of the way. "NO!" She gasped as the blade found her back. She knelt to the ground as Callen's team tackled Selin and cuffed him.

As Zollar and Michaels led the dealer away, Callen knelt beside the younger woman. "Lana?" he asked while placing a hand over the wound. "You ok?"

"I'm ok Callen, what about you?" She managed to look over her shoulder at his and saw the wound there. "He got you again, didn't he?" She sighed and dipped her head, but brought it up a moment later when a man in a matching uniform called out to her.

Callen watched as a man roughly her age came toward them. "Lake? You ok?"

"I'm alright, Simon, check Callen first." She gasped as she moved to point to Callen. Both Simon and Callen caught her as the wound on her back caught on her uniform.

"You are anything but ok Tina, get on the gurney. I'm taking you to the hospital." Simon said. He missed the gasp that came from Callen as he put the name together and the look of utter shock that crossed his features.

Sam watched his partner from over the shoulders of his team members as they discussed the take down. He saw the look of astonishment that came over his friend's face and saw that he completely ignored another paramedic when he asked if he was ok. Excusing himself from the others, he went over. "G? You ok?" he placed a hand on his uninjured shoulder to try and ground him. Instead he was shocked when Callen shoved him away and pulled his weapon.

Callen wasn't in the present when a hand touched the shoulder that had been injured many years ago. He shoved the person away and looked around and saw Tina. She was on a gurney, about to be loaded into an ambulance. Keeping his gun on the people in front of him, he backed up until he was alongside her.

Sam, Kensi and Deeks, along with everyone else watched as Callen headed over to the woman they only knew as Lana. They kept their distance as the two conversed. He only caught Lana's reply to whatever he had said.

"It wasn't you. It was Selin, again. You've never hurt me Callen. And you did stop him. Let Simon take a look at your shoulder, then I think your friend Sam would like to know what is going on." Lana said, stretching up and wiping a tear from Callen's face. She laid back down and allowed another medic to put her into the bus. Sam saw Callen come back to the present at her touch and put his gun away.

Sam cautiously made his way over to his friend as the Ambulance drove away. "What was that about G?" he asked, this time keeping his hands to himself.

"Nell?" He simply asked. Now that Selin was in custody, and that she had no doubt seen and heard everything that had just happened from ops, he desperately wanted to see her.

"I'll meet you in the boatshed." She said over the earwig. She looked over at Hetty and saw her nod.

As Eric offered to drive her, Hetty wondered at the conversation they had heard. After the two friends left ops, she replayed it on the screen again.

"Tina, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to stop him."

"It wasn't you. It was Selin. You've never hurt me Callen. And you did stop him. Let Simon take a look at your shoulder, then I think your friend Sam would like to know what is going on."

Hetty recalled Callen's file and found several interesting things. She then called the hospital for an update on the paramedic that had helped them and made a couple of arrangements.

Callen entered the boatshed and carrying his kit bag retrieved from Sam's trunk, headed straight for a shower. Just as he stepped out, Nell appeared in front of him. He dropped the towel he was using to dry his hair and launched himself at her. The two latched onto each other and held on for dear life. He cried into her shoulder, his fear of being so near death and not being close to her overwhelming him. The two sank to the floor, him shaking with silent sobs, her rubbing circles into his back and murmuring to him.

Sam had received a text from Hetty just as he pulled up at the boatshed asking him to do something for her. After telling Callen that Nell was on her way, he headed off. He phone rang, it was Hetty. "I've just dropped him off Hetty, what's up?"

"The young woman that was with you today?"

"Lana? I think her partner called her Tina Lake."

"The very same. I want you to go to the hospital, pick her up and take her to the boatshed. I think she holds a piece of Callen's past that has haunted him for a while."

"What piece?" Sam asked, and even as he asked, he remembered when he had seen her "She was the first on the scene the day he was shot!"

"That is part of it. But something from his childhood was what I was referring to."

"Will do Hetty."

Sam entered the hospital and asked where she was. After being directed to her room, he stood at the door for a moment while she stood in the window. From her position, she would have seen him pull up.

"Am I in trouble?" She asked as she turned to face him.

"No, I'm here to take you to Callen. My boss thinks that you hold some piece of a puzzle for him." He walked into the room as she sat on the bed. "And thank you for helping to him the day he was shot in Venice."

"I was told he died that day." Sam heard the sorrow and relief that seeped into her voice as she dipped her head. "Where is he?" She asked when she raised her head.

"I'll take you now if you're ready." She nodded and he led her to the car.

He had just entered the door when he heard Callen yelp in excitement and guessed that he had just seen that Nell was pregnant.


	7. Answers 2

A/N: Final chapter. I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

After several minutes on the floor, Nell managed to get Callen to stand and led him to the couch. As they walked, he noticed a slight roundness to her stomach. He stopped walking and stared as Nell turned to him to see what had made him stop. She saw his eyes on her midsection and went to him. She took his hand and placed it over their growing baby. She looked up into his eyes and saw elation mixed with concern and fear. Nell placed her hands on either side of his face and drew him in for a kiss. "It's ours, and you're going to be great."

"Really?" He asked, placing both hands on her, still worried.

"Yes. I only had to see how you interacted with Sam's kids to know how great you would be."

"When?"

"Melbourne Cup night." She blushed, then smiled as she saw the same blush creep over his own cheeks. "I didn't know for sure until about a week after you went under. The rest of the team know. I didn't want them to tell you. You had enough to worry about without adding me to the list. Anyway, Sam did a pretty good job of looking after me, making sure I ate right and got plenty of sleep. Michelle's been a big help too." As she spoke, Nell worked on the wound on Callen's shoulder as he rubbed her belly, a smile planted on his face. Once she had finished, Nell ran circles over his back, making them bigger until she touched the wound on his shoulder from his childhood, at which point he froze. It was the same wound that he had shied from her touch when they were in Melbourne.

"What do you remember from that day Callen?" A voice said from the door. Callen swung around, pulled his gun from behind his back and stood in front of Nell. Lana stood there, in jeans and a loose top because of the wound to her back.

"Lana? You used to call Alina that until I taught you how to say it properly. Tina? That really you?" As Tina nodded, he lowered his gun and went to hug her. As her arms went around him, Nell could hear him crying again.

"I thought you were dead, Callen, we both did." They squeezed each other for a moment longer then Tina said "She was so determined to find you. If you didn't believe her, she was going to call me to come and help. My partner and I were just around the corner. When those shots rang out, I didn't need dispatch to tell me what had happened."

"Why didn't you tell Sam that you knew me?" He asked as they sat.

"I never got the chance. I never knew who you worked for; I didn't have a starting point."

"Wait, why did you ask George what he remembered from that day?" Nell asked, her arm around his waist.

"You don't remember?" Tina asked.

"What?"

"Selin, Selin is Niles backwards." As she finished, Callen stood abruptly from his chair and made his way over to a window.

"George?" Nell asked as she followed him. She saw him rub his shoulder over the wound that he didn't want to talk about.

"Niles was a man who tried to kidnap Alina and I when we were kids. Callen heard us yelling and raced to help us. "

_Flashback_

Callen was coming back from a sleep over when he heard yelling coming from the Rostov's yard. He dropped his bag and raced toward the sound and when he got closer, he saw a man holding onto Alina's hand and he was pulling her toward a car. Tina was holding her other hand and was desperately trying to pull her away from the man. It was the middle of the week, so there were not a lot of people around. Callen cleared the fence and tackled the man to the ground, forcing him to release the girl's hand.

As the two stood, the man pulled a knife. When Callen turned his head to the girls, he tried to stab Callen. Tina saw the move, grabbed Callen's shirt and managed to pull him off balance enough that the man missed him. As Callen stumbled backwards past Tina, the man, not meeting any resistance to his attack, continued forward and stumbled into Tina. The small girl screamed as the knife cut her shoulder.

Callen, hearing her, regained his balance and yelling at Alina in Russian to get inside and lock the door, charged at the man. He managed to get under the knife and tackled him to the ground again. As Callen struggled to gain control of the knife, the man cut him on his shoulder. Callen cried out as he was pushed back. He managed to get the knife just as he was hauled off the man.

By the time the girls had gotten into the house, other people had come out. They saw the fight, heard Callen yell in a foreign language, saw the girls run into the house and misinterpreted the situation. Some of the men grabbed Callen and hauled him off the man. They seized his hand that had a knife in it. Someone twisted his wrist until he dropped the knife. He saw the Rostov's pull up and saw Mrs Rostov racing to the house calling for her daughter, while Mr Rostov hurried over to where the neighbours were holding Callen.

"No you don't understand, he …" Callen didn't get to finish when he was suddenly backhanded. His head whipped to the side. He looked up when he heard Mr Rostov cursing at him. He tried to explain but was cut off by another slap from the man. His eyes filled with tears as he went still in the arms of those holding him. He took a breath and stood tall as the mask that would remain for the next thirty years slid into place.

The moment he felt the hands holding him loosen, his captors thinking that he wouldn't fight anymore; Callen shook them off and ran. He vaulted over the fence, grabbed his bag and had vanished around the corner before the people in the yard had any idea where he had gone.

_End Flashback_

"After you disappeared around the corner, Alina and I raced outside to find you. Nobody listened to us when we tried to tell the adults what had happened. At the time, Niles was a well-respected man in the area, so everyone believed him when he said that he had stopped you from trying to take one of us away." Tina said as she handed her tow audience members a cup of tea and sat down opposite them.

She took a drink as Callen asked "How do you remember all that? You were only about four."

Tina smiled slightly and replied "Actually, until I hit thirteen, I was pretty small for my age. I was six at the time." She took another drink and asked Callen "Where did you go?"

"The one place I knew where someone would listen to me," He looked over at Nell, "Hetty's."

_FLASHBACK_

Callen ran hard and fast. The backpack containing everything he had bounced on his wounded shoulder painfully with every step. At first he didn't know where he was running to until he stood at Hetty's door. Forgetting that he had a key, he pounded on the door. It opened and he fell into the house, almost collapsing on top of Hetty.

"Mr Callen?" Hetty gasped as she took in his appearance. He had blood on his shoulder and over his chest, a large bruise forming on his cheek and his lip was split in a couple of places. She somehow managed to get him inside and onto a couch, where he curled up into a ball. Hetty watched as silent sobs racked him, wondering what on earth had happened.

Callen had been very happy at the Rostov's. They helped him come out of his shell so much that she hoped that he would be there permanently. Because of his lack of records, and the fact that Hetty couldn't find them, meant that he could never be adopted; but she held out the hope that they would want him permanently.

She tried to touch him at one point to try and get him to talk to her, but he slapped her hand away, rolled over and curled up even tighter on the small couch. She stood there, trying and failing to think of a situation that would have made Callen run from the only family that he wanted to stay with. In the end she headed to the kitchen to make a meal for the boy when he awoke. She then made several phone calls and got the answer. What she was told did not match up with what she knew of the boy.

Callen came out of his ball when he smelt the makings of lasagne, his favourite meal when he stayed with Hetty. He didn't even remember getting there. He unwound himself from his bag, which he had not let go of, left it on the floor and headed into the kitchen.

"How are you feeling, Mr Callen?" Hetty asked as she heard him enter. She turned around and deposited the pot of meat and sauce onto the bench.

"Headache, thirsty." Hetty quickly handed him a glass of water and some pills and told him to sit. "I thought you would have called the cops on me." He said as she helped him out of his shirt so she could see what wounds he had received this time.

"And why would I do that?" She asked as she heaved a silent sigh that the worst wound on his shoulder was small and would not require a trip to the hospital. She dabbed anti-septic on it, added a numbing cream and quickly put five stitches into the wound. She caught Callen watching every move she made, no doubt storing it all away in case he ever had to sew himself or someone else up.

"Because I…" Callen trailed off, unsure what it was he had done.

"Why don't you tell me what happened while we put this together." She said, seeing that he had no idea what had happened.

_END FLASHBACK_

"Hetty helped me to realise that I had done the right thing. And if people don't want to listen and understand everything, there was nothing you could do about it until the time was right. I stayed with her for two months. Then she found me a place with an old friend of hers."

"The last family you were with?" Nell asked as she curled up next to him.

"No, but ever since then, they were ok people. People that had kids stay with them until they got back on their feet, safe places if I needed somewhere to go. I never stayed anywhere as long as I did with the Rostov's."

Tina sat on the other side of Callen then. "Niles was caught four years later dumping the body of a four year old girl. When the police told the Rostov's, they couldn't believe that they had driven you away. When they tried to find you it was too late, you had aged out and disappeared. They feared that what they had done to you that day; turned you into a villain. There were no records of you anywhere after you turned twenty."

"After two years in the Navy, I went into government work. Not having a real name made it easier for me to vanish." Callen said as thought about what Tina had told him. He had tried to save her and Alina, only to have everyone think that he was the bad guy. Now he knew that Alina and Tina had always known the truth and had never given up on him. He just wished that he could go back in time to that day on the beach with Gibbs and asked her what she was doing following him.

"I still live in the house with my husband; I would love if the two of you came over for dinner." Tina said, wrapping an arm around him and clasping Nell's hand in hers.

"We would love to. I want to know more about her." Nell said. The three sat in silence for a moment until a phone jolted them out of their thoughts. Nell pulled it out of her pocket and spoke for a moment. Callen could hear Hetty and wondered what she wanted.

Nell put the phone back and turned to Callen. "George, Hetty wants us to head home. Reports can wait until tomorrow. Sam will take us home. Tina as well, unless she has a car at work."

"No, Simon picked me up. Thank you."

"No, thank you, Tina." Callen said, "You and Alina always believed me, I should have stayed…"

"Nothing you said would have worked back then. They only saw and believed what they wanted. You did the right thing." Tina said as they stood. They hugged and headed out to meet Sam.

Sam had left after dropping Tina off at the boatshed. He had Eric patch the cameras and mics to his phone and listened as the last pieces that made G. Callen who he was, fall into place. The pair had told him of Nell's findings on Boxing Day, and Sam had been over the moon. Since then, every spare minute they had, were spent trying to find his father.

Sam and the others also helped, asking for favours, calling in markers; putting out every lead they could to find him. So far, nothing had eventuated, but with all the tentacles they had out there, something had to happen soon.

He listened and joined in as they engaged in conversation on the way back to Callen's place. Sam was about to pull up when he saw a figure standing on the porch. He continued on after Callen had also seen the shadow. After parking around the corner and making sure the women were safely locked in the car, they headed back to Callen's.

Coming over the back fence, they headed toward the front of the house. Callen went through the house while Sam made his way along the side. After pausing a beat, Callen pulled open the door while Sam ran around the side and pushed the stranger inside.

Sam pressed the guy against the wall inside the door, while Callen quickly searched him. After finding nothing but a wallet, Sam stepped back and allowed the man to turn around. He had white hair and after Sam switched on the light, he could see that he was in his late seventies. He looked over at Callen, who was staring at the man's wallet.

"Dad?" he asked as he looked up.

NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles

Six months later, Callen was holding his brand new daughter, Alina Clara Callen, while Hetty set up the camera. Standing next to him was his brand new wife Nell, and newly discovered father.

Nikita had believed him to be dead, along with his wife and daughter, so had never searched for him. Instead, he had gone after those who had destroyed his family and sent them to prison. One of his contacts in Russia had heard of the questions asked by Nell and told him where they had come from. Once he arrived in Los Angeles, he picked up on more threads and leads the team had put out in an attempt to find him. He managed to contact Hetty, who told him where to go.

On either side of them were a newly engaged Deeks and Kensi, with Eric, Sam, Michelle and their kids. Nate had once again made a timely appearance, Gibbs had gladly made the long trip from Washington and the unknown couple from their house warming party were there as well. Once Hetty had everything ready, she took her place at the front of her mismatched perfect family.

"Ready everyone?!" She didn't even wait for a confirmation as she hit the remote.

Callen raced after his running daughter eighteen months later, trying to get her ready for a bath. He passed a photo on the wall that stood out from all the others. It was in a gold frame and measured three feet long by two feet high. The unknown couple were slightly behind the group and off to the side; Deeks and Kensi could be seen kissing while Nell and Callen looked down at Alina with Nikita looking at them. Nate, Hetty and Gibbs were smiling broadly as they looked at the rest of the team.

A plaque was attached to the bottom of the frame that had just two words.

"My Family"

* * *

Well, there we go. When I started The Penpal all those years ago, I had no idea it would go for so long, let alone spawn two more stories. I hope those who have stuck with me have enjoyed reading these as much as I've enjoyed writing them. Thank you.


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